A METHOD FOR A RADIOTELEPHONE TO SEARCH FOR HIGHER PRIORITY NETWORKS

摘要

A method for a radiotelephone to search for a high priority, home, or home-equivalent public land mobile network (PLMN) includes a first step of camping (300) the radiotelephone on a cell of visited PLMN. A next step includes uniquely identifying (302) the cell. A next step includes searching (304) for PLMNs with a higher priority than the visited PLMN. A next step includes storing (306) a history of those frequencies found that are not of a higher priority PLMN for the uniquely identified cell. Any subsequent searches for frequencies of higher priority PLMNs performed while camped on that cell includes scanning (308) for available frequencies except for those frequencies listed in the history for the uniquely identified cell in which the radiotelephone is camped.